…Before your head hits the pillow…

Are you using them or burying them?

What a blessing it is to know that our earthly death is not final! But what is our response to the amazing love that Christ demonstrated through His ultimate sacrifice? Our response MUST be action. Our response must be – Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. Colossians 3:23-24.

Christ told us what is expected of us in Matthew 25:14-30. This parable about the talents lets us know what we must be doing. A master was about to leave on a journey. Before He left, he gave each of three servants talents. One was given five talents, one was given two and yet another was given one. What exactly a “talent” was in the New Testament is debatable; however it was a large sum of money. Some scholars value one talent at $1,000-$30,000 in our American dollars; others equate five talents to the equivalent of what an ordinary person might make in 20 years of wages. But there is no dispute over the fact that a New Testament talent was a large sum of money.

The person who was given five talents doubled his master’s resources as did the person who was given two talents. But the person who was given one talent became fearful and buried his so as not to lose it.

But this parable is not really about money, this parable is about what our master has given us. The master in the parable entrusted his servants with his possessions, just as our Lord entrusts us with His possessions. Nothing that we have here on earth is ours; rather everything that we have belongs to the Giver, to our Lord.

The Lord entrusts his possessions to us in according to the ability He has given us, just as the master in the parable did. Matthew 25:15 states that each was given according to his own ability. God expects us to use the gifts and talents He has given us. He expects us to use them with boldness. He expects us to discover HOW to use them and then go about doing so.

Some time ago a woman in our church and I were talking about the wonderful service we had and how thankful we were for our pastor. Then she proceeded to tell me that she sat right down and wrote the pastor a note to thank him for his leadership. That woman was using the gifts and talents she has been given. She was using her gift of encouragement to bless our pastor. And I am sure that she will be rewarded for doing so.

Sometimes I think that we look at people who have BIG talents. People who have beautiful singing voices, people who can speak eloquently, people who have an amazing gift to write, people who know how to lead thousands and then think, what in the world do I have? Well, let me assure you, you do have gifts and talents! You may have the gift of encouragement, you may be a wonderful hostess, you may be fantastic with kids, or you may be a wiz on the computer. Whatever gift or talent the Lord has given you, you MUST use it!

What kept the third servant from trying to multiply the talent he had been given? What stopped him was fear! I believe that fear is the devils best tool. Fear can paralyze us and keep us from using the gifts and talents that God has given us. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, or fear of ridicule may keep us from serving faithfully. Fear and Faith cannot co-exist. Fear not only keeps you from doing what needs to be done, you not only fail to increase, but you actually lose what you had in the first place, just as the third servant did.

Mark Dunagan of the Beaverton Church of Christ gives five practical steps to excavate long buried talents: 1) Define your passions; what do you love to do? Ask yourself what are the dreams and goals you had years ago that you may have buried? 2) Don’t get discouraged. Start out small. Talents need to be developed and trained. Talents often take practice. No excellent pianist becomes excellent without practice. 3) Seek advice from others to help you discover and fine tune your talents. 4) Don’t focus on immediate results. Start immediately but don’t think that everything will happen overnight. 5) You cannot use your gift merely for your own personal benefit; find a way to use it to benefit others.

So are you using or burying your talents? I think that we must all acknowledge that we can always do better, we can always serve better. The important thing is to not bury what it is that God has given us to multiply. And remember the words of Ecclesiastes 9:10 – Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

This world, the world we live in, is the world of service, the place to use the talents we have been given. When we die, it will be too late to use them, so use them wisely and use them boldly in His service today!